@leankitjon

KanbanAn evolutionary approach to agility

@leankitjon

Change is a given

We can’t control it

Prepare for bad

Embrace good

Water-fail

Laundry List

Gold plate

Slap Together

Blamestorm

@leankitjon

Many people you meet will have a narrow software development centric view of modern management ideas

Agile

Scrum

XP

LeanKanban?

DSDMNope

@leankitjon

1950s-1980s 1980s 1990s 2000s Today

Just-In-Time

Kanban

Lean(Manufacturing)

Lean IT(SAFe & ITSM)

Lean Engineering

ToyotaProduction

System

Six Sigma

TQM

Agile

XP

Scrum

Lean Construction

Lean (Startup) Enterprise

DevOpsUnderstanding shared heritage broadens learning and eases communication

@leankitjon

Kanban is a means to an end Helping teams apply Lean

principles

Eliminate Waste

Build Quality In

Create Knowledge

Defer Commitment

Deliver Fast

Respect People

Optimize the Whole

Process

Skille

d Pe

ople

Tools & Technology

@leankitjon

What is this? Why should I care?

How?Who will notice?

Why? What else?

FSGD

One of Many Lean Tools

@leankitjon

We use sticky notes

But …

There’s a bit more than that

YepThe Kanban Method

@leankitjon

Value Stream Mapping

@leankitjon

The quickest path to agility is to start from where you are today.

1. Visualize the (current) workflow

2. Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP) *

3. Manage (for smooth) flow

4. Make process policies explicit

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Improve collaborativelyusing Kanban to implement Lean

Evolve

* Often implicitly at first

Kanban Principles

@leankitjon

This is Greek to me. So are many/most project deliverables to non-specialists

@leankitjon

A picture translates complexity into a simple pattern we can all digest

@leankitjon

Map out your real, current process. Not what your policy manual says

1. Have each team member write down a few of their current work items

2. Ask each person to pick one at a time

3. Have them describe:

• What am I doing to it now?

• Who had it before & what were they doing with it?

• Who will I hand it to next, to do what?

Visualize Workflow

Exercise

@leankitjonCards are (usually) nouns, lanes are verbs

@leankitjon

As the manager, only add your “official” list after

Exercise1. Have each team member list their full, current

workload

2. Have them assign each item a type: UX feature, API feature, defect, task, etc

3. Collate the work types they defined into one list and assign each a card color

4. Turn the lists into cards and place them in the correct lane on the board

Visualize Workflow

@leankitjon

Be succinct and focus on results. Try to limit types of work

@leankitjon

Be succinct and focus on results. Try to limit types of work

@leankitjon

Focus on delivery of value by the team, not individual activity

Daily(at first) StandupAllow a fixed time period – 1 min/person

Ensure board is complete & accurate

Are there expedites or blockers?

Otherwise, walk the board from right to left a card at a time

• What’s needed to advance this item?• Who can help?

Stop when time runs out

Feedback Loops

@leankitjon

Hold regular retrospectives …. but stop-the-line for bottlenecks

@leankitjon

Aim for a small, shared list of actionable items, not a laundry list

Retrospectives

1. Let data be your guide

2. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

3. Common root cause answers:

• Hidden WIP• Stop starting, start finishing• Downstream/external blockages• Uneven sizing• Parallel processes• Rework

Feedback Loops

@leankitjonControl charts allow targeted process improvements

@leankitjon

Better decomposition and delivery speed trends can replace point story estimating

@leankitjon

Estimating is Waste: Decompose instead

The way we think about this at LeanKit …

● A DIV can be completely finished to production in the dark by a squad in 5 business days or less with 90% confidence

● An A3 can be completely finished to production in the dark by a squad in 4 weeks or less with 90% confidence

● An A3 must be clearly divisible into 3+ divs that meet the above standard

● A squad shouldn’t be working on multiple A3s in a sweep. We need to focus on getting one key thing done well not several poorly

● A theme should be no more than 3 squad sweeps, ie one squad for three sweeps or three squads for one sweep, etc.

● Larger than that should be a serious executive risk decision. We are placing a lot of weight on a hypothesis

● We would rather invest 1-3 sweeps in something initially and make a decision to proceed further based on multiple successful div deployments that show progress.

@leankitjon

Splitting process steps into active/waiting queues makes flow more clear

@leankitjon

Swimlanes can represent different workflows or partner teams

@leankitjon

Once work visible & process is clear, WIP limits can balance capacity

@leankitjon

Start from where you are today, even (especially) if that’s Scrum

1. Visualize the (current) workflow

2. Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP) *

3. Manage (for smooth) flow

4. Make process policies explicit

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Improve collaborativelyusing Kanban to apply new models

Evolve

* Often implicitly at first

Kanban Principles

@leankitjon

Release 1

Iteration 1

Iteration Planning

Daily Standup

Demo / Retro

Iteration n

Iteration Planning

Daily Standup

Demo / Retro

Iteration Backlog

Fixed Time and People

Not Done

Iteration Backlog

Not Done

Product Owner

Ideas

Product Backlog

Release Planning

Release Backlog

Scrum mandates new roles, “rituals” and cadence for a team

The Scrum FrameworkScrum master

@leankitjon

Look beyond the tactical practices to gain real value.

The real value is in the principles.

Do BothScrum• A structure of new roles, “rituals” and cadence• No prohibition against visualization, WIP limitation or

flow measurement• A mature Scrum team with good technical practices

often looks awfully Kanban-ish 

Kanban• Evolution through measurement• No opinion on roles, meetings or iterations• Software dev teams who use Kanban to become

more Agile often act quite Scrum-y

@leankitjon

leankit.com/learn

• Articles

• E-books

• Webinars

• Templates

• Case Studies

Key Reading Online

@leankitjon

leankit.com/learn

• Articles

• E-books

• Webinars

• Templates

• Case Studies

Key Reading

Kanban: Successful evolutionary change for your technology business- David J. Anderson

Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life- Jim Benson, Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Real-World Kanban: Do Less, Accomplish More with Lean Thinking- Mattias Skarin

Lean from the Trenches: Managing Large-Scale Projects with Kanban- Henrik Kniberg

Principles of Product Development Flow- Don Reinertsen

Online

www.leankit.com

@leankitjon

©2016 LeanKit Inc.